Catching the Dream for Gifted Children of Color1

Abstract

Gifted children of color are too frequently underrepresented among those labeled "America's best and brightest." A Better Chance, Inc., a national academic talent search agency, has found more than 8,000 minority children and provided them with access to an excellent college preparatory education. Detecting, estimating, and evaluating "intelligence" is still typically based on test data and IQ scores. ABC has learned to use additional yardsticks: a strong sense of self, an independent mind, a questioning attitude, a willingness to take risks and to persevere. If educators are sincerely interested in identifying gifted children from all parts of American society, multiple assessment procedures, including objective and subjective data from a variety of sources, must be used. Within every classroom in this country, including those enrolling minorities and the disadvantaged, the proportion of gifted students is the same as that found in the nation's most affluent communities. It is our challenge as educators to find these gifted children. And we must find them quickly, before inertia and indifference immobilize their minds.

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